Krümmel Nuclear Power Plant is a German

nuclear power plant A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a electric generator, generato ...

Geesthacht Geesthacht () is the largest city in the District of the Duchy of Lauenburg (Herzogtum Lauenburg) in Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany, south-east of Hamburg on the right bank of the River Elbe. History A church was built in what is today ...

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sch ...

, near

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. It was taken into operation in 1983 and is owned 50% by

Vattenfall Vattenfall is a Swedish multinational power company owned by the Swedish State. Beyond Sweden, the company generates power in Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The company's name is Swedish for "waterfall", and ...

via

Vattenfall Europe Nuclear Energy GmbH Vattenfall Europe Nuclear Energy GmbH is a subsidiary of the Swedish power company Vattenfall that has majority and minority ownerships of three nuclear power plants around Hamburg in Germany. It is located in Überseering 12, 22297 Hamburg.firmendb ...

and 50% by E.ON, and operated by the Swedish Vattenfall. Its gross power production is 1,401 MW, using a

boiling water reactor A boiling water reactor (BWR) is a type of light water nuclear reactor used for the generation of electrical power. It is a design different from a Soviet graphite-moderated RBMK. It is the second most common type of electricity-generating nuc ...

. The reactor was the world's second largest of its type in commercial operation. It is nearly identical to three other German nuclear reactors, namely

Brunsbüttel Nuclear Power Plant The Brunsbüttel Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant in Brunsbüttel near Hamburg, Germany. It is owned 67% by Vattenfall and 33% by E.ON. It started operation in 1976 and has a gross power production of 806 MW. During its lifetime, it p ...

(near Hamburg),

Philippsburg Nuclear Power Plant The Philippsburg Nuclear Power Plant is located in Philippsburg, Karlsruhe (district), Germany. The plant was operated by EnBW Kernkraft GmbH. As part of Germany's phase out of nuclear energy (Atomausstieg), unit 1 was shut down in 2011 and unit ...

Block 1 and

Isar Nuclear Power Plant Isar I and Isar II are two base load nuclear power plants which have been built in Germany next to the Isar river. They are fourteen kilometres away from Landshut, between Essenbach and Niederaichbach. Safety Passive safety features The safet ...

Block 1, as well as the Austrian

Zwentendorf Nuclear Power Plant The Zwentendorf Nuclear Power Plant was the first commercial nuclear plant for electric power generation built in Austria, of 3 nuclear plants originally envisioned. Construction of the plant at Zwentendorf, Austria was finished but the plant nev ...

, that never went into service. Since July 4, 2009, after the reactor is not running, and since 2011 it is definitely shutdown due to popular demand. (Atomausstieg).

Controversies and accidents

Since 1986, a significantly higher than average number of cases of

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

have been found in the area around the power plant. On June 28, 2007, a short circuit caused a fire in the

transformer A transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces a varying magnetic flux in the transformer' ...

of the power plant and required the plant to be shut down. Power outages were experienced in the neighboring areas. The sequence of events caused the dismissal and resignation of several Vattenfall Europe AG employees. On June 21, 2009, the Krümmel reactor was restarted for the first time since the 2007 fire, and the plant started to produce electricity again but was shut down for the second time on July 4, 2009, only a few days after its two-year-long repair period. The shutdown was caused by a short circuit in a transformer that was very similar to what caused the June 2007 fire. The reactor shut down normally and was not affected. The plant's general manager resigned. In a press conference July 9, Ernst Michael Züfle, head of the nuclear division of Vattenfall, acknowledged that there was damage to "perhaps a few fuel elements." Even before the shutdown, foreign bodies—sharp shards of metal from earlier work that should have been flushed—were found to have ended up, potentially dangerously, in the reactor and had, to some degree, been cleaned out. On July 7, Wulf Bernotat, CEO of E.on, wrote in a sharply worded letter to Vattenfall management in Sweden that his company was "appalled" by the handling of safety procedures at the plant, according to a lengthy report in ''Spiegel''. The report went on to discuss how the accident could impact the German national debate about nuclear power plant license extensions."ATOMIC NIGHTMARE: Krümmel Accident Puts Question Mark over Germany's Nuclear Future"
by ''Spiegel'' staff; Petra Bornhöft, Markus Deggerich, Frank Dohmen, Sebastian Knauer, Gunther Latsch, Christian Salewski, Christian Schwägerl, Samiha Shafy; Trans. from the German by Christopher Sultan. 7/13/09. Retrieved 8/16/2009. Before new transformers could be installed, it was decided in March 2011 to decommission the plant.

References

External links

Krümmel BWR (drawing)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krummel Nuclear Power Plant Former nuclear power stations in Germany Buildings and structures in Schleswig-Holstein Economy of Schleswig-Holstein Vattenfall nuclear power stations